arch

Top quality workmanship from Meercat, they build championship winning exhaust systems

wow glad they made mine this year

I have had a lot of work done on the race RA at Meercat and the quality is first class so this would be a good chance to get a your exhausts modded or replaced. Given that Meercat are very reasonable anyway then you could end up with a bargain. Remember they can chop into a system and add small resonated sections as well as building complete systems, back boxes and fabrication of rotated set ups and custom intercooler pipework etc etc

from my understanding of the new rules i didnt think you could run a 2.5 or 6 speed in A3? as its not what a classic came with? thats why i didnt enter my car this year?????

Think you should have entered your car then Bob

Privelege for me to but they did want a tracker

so you'll be running in the modified class then not a3?

Well had the car over at John at Progrip today after John kindly squeezed me in at the last minute. John had mentioned that he has the basis of his website up and running. It has a link to the Hunter site which has a few simple guides to various aspects of geometry settings.

http://www.pro-grip.org.uk/

Everything at the front was still spot on but both nearside rear camber bolts had moved so it was a quick tweek and all sorted so fortunately nothing major wrong. Had a chance to have a good look around under side while it was on the ramp and other than cosmetic scrapes to the wheels and a few stone chips the car is ok after the slight detour which is a relief.

So just a little bit of wiring and a tart up and the car is ready which is a massive difference to the stress and disapointment of last year although in the end winning the Scottish Sprint Class for the 2nd year in a row, with so few rounds completed, was a pleasing bonus

good read there arch!what engine you running and what class you entering this year modifed?

Thanks Bob the car is currently running a 2.5lt

Nice one Archie

Maybe you should take up drag racing, no corners, what could possibly go wrong

cheers

Andy

Nah too boring and no competition Note to self THE CAR NO LONGER HAS A 20G

That was close mate.

Great write up Atchie

How is yours coming on peter

Well after a busy few days after returning from another stint in Athens the car is pretty much ready to go now apart form some cosmetic changes.

Was over at Progrip on Fri getting John to dial in some new settings which all went well thanks again John for the help and advice

Managed to get a couple of pics of the wastegate set up which Scott at Meercat spent ages on and made a cracking job of, really cant recommend the lads down there highly enough

I had hoped to take some digital thermometer readings of the ceramic coating on the headers, uppipe and wastegate take off but didn't get hold of the thermometer in time. I did manage to have a feel of the headers after one run and was amazed that i could touch it straight away so first impressions are very good. I also noticed under bonnet temps ate the air filter are down about 6-8 deg from last year, again Big thanks to Stewart Black form Black Performance for such a top job on the coatings it definitely seems on first usage superior to the wrap from last year and is certainly much more user friendly and will last infinitely longer

Well the test day down at Kames today was pretty much a mixed bag. No one really able to put any power down due to the wet and slippy conditions. The aim for me really was to get to grips with the new gearbox and get a feel for the car again. The Hawkeye ratio's are pretty close to the 5 speed ratio's so should work well in the car this year. I have not had time to wire up the neetronics diff controller but that will be sorted before the first event.

The power delivery is there from very early in the rev range and pulls right through the rev range, it really is like a different car from last year. I never had the chance to try the high boost map as the conditions just didn't suit as everyone struggled to get any traction. On first impressions its going to be fun, big thanks to Andy F for yet another top bit of mapping and John St well you know why

On the last run of the afternoon I had a small mishap just after the kink on the straight into paddock locked the brakes and managed to get the car out of shape at the fastest bit of the cct, wasn't even going flat but thought I had caught it but ended up on the wet grass and from then was a passenger, just as the car went into the gravel i managed to get some lock on and forced the car to dig in sideways, always a risk as there is the likelihood of rolling but managed to get away with it just, well with about 4 inches to spare. Car was pretty buried especially on the drivers side but on an initial inspection it seems OK apart from a few battle scars on the paintwork and a red face.

Starting to go wrong

Big thanks to Graham Clark for dragging the car out with his range rover and Jac for helping dig it out and a big thank you for the helpful comments about my inability to tie knots, knew I should have went to boy scouts instead of playing with cars

Got the car home cleaned it up and given it a very quick once over, will get it across to John at progrip to have the alignment rechecked but pretty confident it should be OK. It was an eventful day with a few mishaps around the track but not surprised as there was very limited grip on most parts of the cct. Hope those involved get there cars sorted quickly

Was me mate yes I told him you should leave your RB320 standard ish

i got craig mcd to fit my cluctch for me in and out same night for less than half sti pretender paid

Agree with neil Craig MCD in paisley posts on here and a good lad

Progrip in Bonneybridge, John has been setting up my road car and race RA for a few years and also John St's race car for longer. John does Geometry on cars for Ian Grieve as well and pretty much does that and only that cost is normally around 60 ish

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/place?hl=en&...055445796004956

will an up pipe from a 93 wrx fit a 2005 wrx 2L

thanks maxy

Yes it will

I'll say another thank you to archie who got me sorted with an exhaust for the forester and even met me half way

cheers again arch will look forward to seeing the race car at kaimes

neil

Not a problem Neil it was nice to meet you, hope it all fits ok, if not blame Gus

Kenny not a problem glad to help sorry I didnt say hello but have been running around with my head on fire for the last week and still am but glad you are sorted

After reading all 13 pages i have to ask

How fast does it go big man

To fast for the road conditions on Fri

i actually seen you out getting mapped mate! i was the one comin out the field in the green pick up on the long straight road to pencaitland! nice looking and sounding motor!

Must admit I didnt notice, there is so much going on that you are concentrating on doing what Andy asks at the right time and also concentrating on the road as things happen very quickly Appreciate the comments

Been a really busy week on the car and at times exhausting including a 20 hours stint on Wed/Thurs morning but things are now starting to come together.

I had a bit of an issue with an air lock in the coolant system which I originally thought may have been the thermostat but having removed it the problem remained so refitted it and filled the block via the top hose then filled the radiator from the top hose and then topped the system up via the "header" tank - problem solved. I have never had to fill it that way before but hey it all now works.

Also had an idling issue which I traced to a sticking ICV so an easy fix there.

The bumper is all fitted back on and then a the last job was to spend a few hours making sure nothing had been left loose or forgotten and a thorough check over of everything before mapping.

The last thing was to get the car across to Andy F to have it mapped. Big thank you to Andy for being so flexible and helpful as usual even after my senior moment on Thurs The car went through the mapping session on Friday without any real issues at all and i am really pleased with the results. We didn't have much of a chance to play with it during the session as the roads were a bit wet and I had road tyres on, so not the best scenario, as we found out at one point Its always a pleasure listening to Andy and picking up some helpful tips and advice from his knowledge and experience thanks Andy . The mapping stage is always a worry as you just never know what issues are going to start to show under boost and I always find the pre-mapping stage the most stressfull part of every year and probably the time of year my subaru social worker dreads the most - thanks John Thanks for coming through to help out Phil

With that out of the way its now a case of tarting it up and sorting out a few niggles and do some wiring for the DCCD.

The clutch isn't any issue it has just been upgraded along with the fly wheel it's a 53 wrx recently fitted with a newly rebuit sti bottom end, the max bhp on a vf35 I'm informed is about 330 and about the same torque so I don't think the gear box is an issue either but again I could be wrong

The TY754VN4AA gearbox, which yours should be, should cope with that power and torque. I used one for a full season in the RA with around 320/320 figures and that was not being at all sympathetic with it and then half a season at around 400/400 and its still fine.

Neil your inbox is full

I use 300V and get it from AS Performance normally arrives next day

Well been busy with the car today and starting to see progress.

The fuel lines are all changed including most of the lines to the fuel tank. It is time consuming making up the hoses but the new hose really is so much better.

I have also pretty much got everything in the engine bay done, Turbo is fitted, headers, up-pipe, wastegate and downpipe also fitted. Its a credit to Scott down at Meercat that it all fitted together perfectly. I still have to make up the hoses to feed the water to the turbo just waiting on some hose that should come tomorrow, well today now, and thats it ready to fire up. The hose from Viper Performance came and fits perfectly with the Turbo and the filter.

The ceramic coating really has made a huge difference in terms of time and ease of fitment. The time saved not having to wrap everything is a god send and the fact it looks so much better is a bonus. Big thanks to Stewart Black at Black Performance.

Tomorrow will hopefully see the car running and everything leak checked and ready to head across to Andy for a tweak later in the week after that its a more about some wiring changes and a thorough tidy up.

Thanks! ordered the six pack and the metal ready spray to go with it. Off to buy some gloves!

I used the metal ready spary as well seems pretty effective

http://www.frost.co.uk/item_Detail.asp?pro...oductName=BLACK POR-15 Six Pack Rust Preventative Paint

This is the paint I use on just about everything, it is amazing stuff just dont get it on your skin it is vey difficult to remove as i found out

You can get it in a large tin as well but I found that it does not like being stored when half full the top layer reacts with the air and makes it really thick and horrible. The 6 pack of small tins are much better. The tins seem really small but the paint goes a long way and covers very well